Marchesini Group Invests in 3D Printing, Serialization

By Akia Thorpe -

February 7, 2018

The Marchesini Group, a Bologna, Italy-headquartered pharmaceutical packaging company, has acquired a 48% stake in SEA Vision, a Pavia, Italy-headquartered creator of vision and inspection systems used in quality control and drug counterfeiting, for EUR 125 million ($153 million), which further includes a long-term strategic agreement. In a separate move, Marchesini has also invested in 3D printing.

SEA Vision employs more than 100 people. Its turnover in 2017 was EUR 32 million ($39 million). SEA Vision will remain technically and commercially independent and will be managed by its founders, Luigi Carrioli and Michele Cei, assisted by sales director Marco Baietti and chief financial officer Matteo Boiardi, backed in the board of directors by Maurizio Marchesini (president of the Marchesini Group), Pietro Cassani (chief executive officer) and Pietro Tomasi (sales director).

In the meantime, the Marchesini Group plans to inaugurate a new factory built entirely for 3D printing at its headquarters. The building is expected to host all the three-dimensional printers currently used by Marchesini, together with new models that are expected to work 24 hours a day to prototype samples in short times and to develop machine parts that up to now have been produced externally. Marchesini says the department will make it possible to curb costs and monitor production planning, machine wear and tear, and error management.